The end of September looms and we’re entering the silliest season: that stretch when NHL teams start trimming their rosters and sending some teenagers back to their junior teams. I call it the silliest season, because it’s “some” and not “all” teenagers and because, with the lessons of history, NHL general managers should know better.

Many folks were amazed that Sidney Crosby scored at better than a point-a-game rate in his rookie season. I wasn’t surprised by that. Maybe even more impressive is the fact that he managed to take a regular shift the whole season without injuries knocking him out of the line-up.

Hatcher, who’s starting the year on the injured reserve list, knows his crippled knee probably won’t get better.

Heck, it got worse over the summer when he wasn’t playing, and he would like to end his career on his own terms.

The reality of the situation is this: While some conspiracy theory types suggest the Flyers are pressuring Hatcher to call it quits now to save money on a badly strained salary cap number, the 36-year-old player says the decision is up to him….

“As tough as it is, you’re never prepared to stop playing hockey. If this is it, I’ve had a great career and that’s what I’ll take.’‘

Born in California to a father of Brazilian-German heritage and maxing out at 5-foot-11, Ryan Hollweg knows all about overcoming the hockey odds.

Whether he can help turn around the fortunes of the Maple Leafs this year is unknown, but he certainly has the right attitude. Hollweg got off to a rousing start with several big hits in a 7-4 win over the Buffalo Sabres Monday.

“If you want to go through somebody, just do it. It’s how I’ve lived,” Hollweg said yesterday at the Air Canada Centre. “I’ve never worried about how big I am. It’s a mental thing. It hasn’t stopped me yet and it won’t stop me now.”

Toronto inventor Bill Forster received his patent last month, and every goalie in organized hockey wants to stand him naked and blindfolded in the net and let Bruins human cannon Zdeno Chara use him for target practice.

Forster’s patent is for the bevelled goal, that is, a net with a crossbar that bends upward from the posts, and posts that warp outward from crossbar to ice.

The result: a slightly larger target for shooters, and pucks more likely to deflect into the net than away.

Bear with me here, even though this is more speculation and reading between the lines than anything.

We read in Tuesday’s paper that hockey ops chief Brian Lawton said he would not hesitate to keep star Vinny Lecavalier and defenseman Paul Ranger out of at least the season opener Oct. 4 in Prague if their rehabbing right shoulders were not ready to go. He said he might even put them on injured reserve to help the team manage their numbers. That’s a big hint not to be taken seriously, especially after watching Jussi Jokinen star at center this preseason.

“I know there’s a lot of people this is going to bother, obviously. But you can’t let it stop you in your tracks. This is a good organization that’s going to work hard to overcome something like this.

“We’re not going to sit there and feel sorry for ourselves ... it doesn’t make any sense. If you feel sorry for yourselves, where do you get yourselves? We’re not going to do that. We’re going to go forward.”

-Blues President John Davidson on the year-ending injury to Erik Johnson. More on the Blues at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch….

Negotiations are clearly at a delicate juncture, very delicate. The two sides are far apart, although Risebrough said he plans to keep trying to get Gaborik inked to an extension. He again maintains he has had no trade talks and doesn’t plan any in the foreseeable future.

The irony here is the big risk in paying Gaborik Ovechkin money or Crosby money or Malkin money or Staal money or Lecavalier money is he’s so injury prone.

And here Gaborik is seeking to be paid like a top two or three player in the NHL while he’s out with a strained quad aggravated on the first day of training camp.

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